Credence
by Kittykae
Summary: Night elf druid, Taiva had no choice but to trust the enemy. When feelings begin to develop for one she should consider her foe, she starts to discover she may not even trust herself.
1. Dismay

**AN: Greetings people of FanFiction. First off, I'd like to establish that this story may have some ideas that differ from actual WoW lore. There are a few of my own ideas I have mixed in to explain things that are left rather unexplained, and personally, I enjoy stories in which authors are creative with how they interpret things.**

**I'd love reviews to tell me what you think, as long as you are giving me constructive critique.**

**On that note, here's the disclaimer:**

**I do not own World of Warcraft, Blizzard does.**

_Taiva was overwhelmed with profuse emotions. There she stood, in the vast and beautiful city of Darnassus just outside the Cenarion Enclave. Streams of purple light were shining down through the small openings in the cover of trees, lighting up the clearing; she could feel the lush green foliage under her feet, and the pleasing scent of the lilac flowers that would grow naturally around these parts, just a hue darker to the pale skin exposed in her ravishing ceremonial attire._

_She had been anticipating this very moment for the last few decades, even as a young child, she was spurred into learning druidism by the other night elves around her. As the child born with golden eyes, a trait rarely seen in Kaldorei females, many saw it that she had great potential, promises to succeed very much like her father had._

_Mother and Father, yes, they were there. Her amber gaze searched amongst the gathering crowd as she caught the expression of pride cast on her Father's broad face. He was smiling at her, and had given her a nod as to say the unspoken words: "Well done, my child." She met the eyes of her Mother too; her expression soft, silvery eyes had become pools of misty haze as she watched her daughter before her._

_She had grown up; she was finally 110, an age that once seemed so far away. _

_Pulling her eyes away from the group of neighbors and family, she looked to the friend at her side. Sestri._

_ The female beside her had her dark, midnight blue hair pulled away from her face in a beautiful jewel- embroidered silver hair band. Adorned in a ravishing gown of white, she had to admit she looked spectacular, though Sestri herself may not agree._

_ It seemed her childhood friend had never taken a liking to dressing up, despite the fact she was naturally beautiful as all night elf women usually were, however this was an occasion that could not be taken lightly, and she was likely forced to by her parents._

_ She searched the face that would be forever changed after they parted when the Rites of Passage ceremony was complete. Young, bare skin would soon be marked with symbolic patterns of her inner animal totem. Sestri seemed a little on edge, not because this was bad, but perhaps because she too was going to be seen a mature night elf. Perhaps it was the expectations she was going to need to meet, and the vigorous training that would follow through._

_Now their Mentor was speaking. He stood behind the two of them as his own amber eyes would be addressing the crowd, whose gaze never left the two fledglings. _

_Dholon would rest each large hand on his students' shoulders, voice thick and loud in the Darnassian language as he would speak of both their accomplishments and the promise of success they would both have after his teachings. _

_This would make Taiva's face flush slightly. She knew most had expected her to succeed. Sestri was born with eyes the norm for females of her race, yet she would never look upon her companion with the slightest bit of condescendence._

_Eventually he would wish blessings of the Goddess upon them, and wish them good fortune with completing the last of their training._

_Taiva would once again look out into the crowd. Oh, how she would of ran to the arms of Mother and Father, knowing that after this she would likely not see them for some time, and how she would of gone to Sestri, establishing better terms with her before they would say goodbye and part ways to follow their own paths._

_She would have done so, but she could do none but stand there and listen to Dholon's words of praise and stare at the faces of the crowd, for this was a dream. _

Taiva blinked and opened her eyes; the grey haze of morning light that beamed through the small rounded window had roused her from her sleep. She was on the ship, tucked away in the hammock hanging from the walls of the crammed, wooden room. Her own unconscious mind was replaying almost exactly what had happened 10 years ago. The dream was a memory that was reenacted while she was in sleep's soft embrace.

The druid sat up on the hammock, swinging her bare feet so that her limbs would touch the plank flooring of the cabin. The ship rocked slightly, and she took hold of the side of the hanging material to steady herself as she stood up, still slightly dazed from just awakening.

Over the past few days on the ship, Taiva had begun not to exactly like staying under the deck during the nights. She would wake and always long to smell the fresh, salty morning air as soon as she did so.

When she had obtained balance, she made way towards a large crate in the corner, a makeshift means of storage during her stay. The night elf rummaged through the supplies stowed away within and pulled out her dark leather robe.

Sighing, she gazed at it. It had been awhile since she had worn it, the past few weeks onboard travelling to Northrend, she would dress herself in casual, comfortable cloth.

Now the travelling part was soon coming to an end, last night was the last time she would have to sleep under the docks; the vessel was approaching The Borean Tundra and she would disembark by midday.

Coming across the letter that had been sent to her by a familiar person, she could feel her stomach clench, even after she had read it over a few times. She unfolded the parchment carefully and stared at the words written in her own language. She remembered her first reaction upon receiving the letter while in Moonglade.

Waves of uncertainty washed over her once again. The handwriting done in a display of graceful curls and lines had reminded her of the same style her dearest friend would once write in, and she confirmed that there was a reason too, as she looked over at the signature at the bottom: "_Sestri_".

_Why am I so worried about what she will think of me?_ She questioned herself.

The last time she had seen the other druid was shortly following their ceremony as to say farewell. She hadn't expected that it would be this long before she would meet up with her again.

Sestri had gone to receive extra training elsewhere while she had gone to live on comfortably in Moonglade, reviewing her natural skills and talents every so often.

There had been a lot she had learned in the last decade, and though being a night elf meant the aging process was greatly slowed, time was at the same pace as everyone else. Ten years was long to go without seeing someone you had grown up with.

But no, it was not a friendly letter to address Taiva in greeting. Sestri hadn't asked her to visit and catch up on lost times. It was a formal letter that had concluded that she, along with her old friend would meet on the battle field, fighting against the Horde over the war-torn territory of Wintergrasp.

The Borean Tundra was not like what she had expected. Sure, she knew that Northrend was a continent under great struggle, but this was far worse than anything she had seen in the last 120 years of her life.

Taiva shivered slightly in her leather armor, and adjusted her fur cloak, pulling it around her closer so that it would cover more of her bare neck and fore arms. While she was relieved that she was soon to have her feet on solid earth again, the smell of taint the air carried was displeasing to her senses.

Knowledge of what it was made it even more provoking to her second thoughts. Scourge.

_You'll need some more audacity; the hardest part is yet to come._ She told herself sternly.

But the entire small port town of Valiance Keep emitted a sense of hopelessness. It was a grim place to be, and it seemed everyone there too knew that.

She watched laborers gather on the docks while the vessel pulled in, making preparations to take off or put supplies on board, most of them human men in worn, wrinkled clothing. Their faces looked weary and afflicted as they would go about doing their job.

_I suppose being here for a prolonged amount of time eventually gets to you._

She suddenly felt a sense of gratitude that she had been sent to fight in Wintergrasp, an area supposedly untainted by Scourge, and not here.

With intentions of removing herself from the horrible place soon, she stared ahead and further studied her surroundings.

She looked up to see the sky shaded with deathly dark grey clouds, and the silhouettes of dead or dying soldiers along the putrid skyline as she gazed out from the ship while it approached the docks.

The chilling breeze cut through her robe. Being leather, the thinner material had both its advantages and disadvantages.

The druid needed to be able to move in combat, and coldness wasn't often something to bother her, having a thick pelt of fur in the feral forms she would prefer to engage combat in.

Taiva subconsciously ran her finger tips against her face from her cheekbones while she stared out. They trailed vertically along the tattoos she had been given with her coming of age.

Her long fingers followed the symmetrical markings over and under each golden eye in which appeared as thick, outstretched claws of a bear in a hue of silvery white, similar to her hair color. The patterns were like a mask against her pale pinky-lilac skin tone, but nonetheless she had always been pleased with how they looked. It was common for the females of her race to tatoo their faces with symbols that reflected their strengths.

And with her markings, the druid boldly affirmed she had gone through the challenges that came with becoming a fully matured night elf woman.

Taiva had taken all the supplies she stowed away in the crate in her cabin and was carrying it all an over-stuffed pack tucked under her arm. She made sure to put all her combat armor on; leather bracers, boots, and robe. Her long staff, edged with a sharp blade on one side, was strapped loosely on her back, incase she needed it, but in most cases the night elf would prefer to fight with tooth and claw.

Sighing softly as the ship came to a stop at the docks, she prepared herself mentally by making notes in her head.

_Don't make eye contact._ She told herself. She didn't want to associate herself with the men on the docks in any way; she saw they were rather scrawny and indecent looking.

_Stay on the path, and you'll be fine._

She tried to reassure herself the journey on foot through the more wild areas of Borean Tundra would go just fine as long as she kept her golden eyes sharp for any danger that may approach her. She also knew why she was having second thoughts.

The rational part of her knew how unpredictable scourge could be. She could handle a few, but they often would attack in more than one.

_Let's hope that doesn't happen then._

And with that, the druid took a better grip on her pack, pulled her cloak tightly around herself for warmth, and strode over to walk off the wooden ramp leading from the large vessel to the docks. Taiva had disembarked the ship, and embarked into a world of new dangers she had never known.

**AN: My goal was to explain the characters, and why things are happening a bit in the first chapter. More eventful stuff will be happening in Chapter 2, I promise!**

**See you there! **


	2. Resent

In the distance, the grey silhouette of Valiance keep was a mere spot on the coastline, its edges grew hazy and eventually disappeared within the embrace of fog.

Taiva's steps were rather slow and wary, muscles would tense as sounds of clashing metal, painful cries, and inhuman screeches grew in volume. She only needed to walk for a few minutes until she was close enough to hear the horrid sounds of battle. They pierced through her nerves as sharp as they did the air. It wasn't that the elf was a coward, she had fought ruthlessly against enemies and killed all the same, which made her a fitting soldier for onslaught on the horde, however engaging combat with something so deviate from anything she knew of was what really filled her with anxiety.

They were abominations of nature.

She had planned on taking a certain route to avoid the entire slaughter of alliance infantries and agents of the Lich King, who appeared as monstrous, insect-like beasts.

Though the assault on the keep would remain at the same pace, it never seemed to cease, it was another reason why she wouldn't want much to do with it. To her, it was a foolish rat race, one that costs the lives of many men and women. Perhaps the whole ordeal could be avoided easily on her behalf; the druid could assume her flight form and reach her destination without the risk of being attacked and at a much quicker speed. The burden she had to carry along with her as a necessity, and bladed staff strapped to her back reminded her why she simply couldn't do that.

Next to come was the pungent odor of rotting corpses and coppery blood, they drifted through the atmosphere like the echoing cries, yet the night elf was determined to continue on her path. Her intent was to get out of the area altogether as soon as she could.

With luck, she had gone on for awhile without interruption. She had tried at best to keep her distance from wherever the soldiers and beasts were fighting, eventually she learned to try and mute them out. She wouldn't let it get to her, as long as she had nothing to do with it, there would be nothing about it she would need to worry about. Or atleast that's what she kept on telling herself.

But then, over all the sounds of chaos, one shrill, distressed cry rang above the others.

Her head swiveled towards the noise immediately, eyes searching through the fog for what ever made it. It sounded like an aged woman. Taiva wasn't quite sure exactly why it had grabbed her attention, but the next thing she heard both confirmed what the bearer of the sound was and that it did indeed have it.

"_My poor, poor, child!"_

The voice came out like a desperate sob.

_Child? _She echoed in her own mind. This was a place for anything but a _child._ Why a child would possibly be out here, she didn't know. She herself found outside the walls of Valiance Keep rather discouraging to venture off to. She huffed out a sigh. It was likely another one of those instances where some young boy wanted to be brave and help out.

"Hello?"

She had stopped moving altogether now, instead calling out to perhaps hear a response that could better tell where the stranger was located.

Silence.

Without another moment of hesitation, she decided what she would have to do. Any apprehensiveness within the night elf disappeared, and she found herself racing towards the voice as fast as her long limbs would carry her. Leather boots would kick up clumps of dirt and dust; she sprinted blindly into the fog before a human woman came into view, her hair dark and earthy streaked with silvery-grey strands, and cloth robe soaked with blood.

She made her way around the aged woman until the distraught expression on her face was apparent. It possibly made her look older than her years, which Taiva could have guessed was around her late forties.

Now the druid could see the blood soaking the woman's robe was not in fact her own. Not a big surprise, actually.

A boy lay propped up against her lap while she knelt down. Puddling viscous liquid gathering around the two, source of the fluid was from spewing stab wounds in the human child's torso just on the ribcage.

A rifle was in place on the soil just a hand's reach from the wounded boy's grasp.

The woman gasped as soon as she saw the night elf. She probably was hoping for aid from her own kind, nonetheless, the situation didn't call for her to be picky. She spoke regardless.

"My son- he's only ten, he shouldn't of been out here. Now something has attacked him."

The possibility that one of the Nerubians that plagued the area had been the attacker was not likely. The creatures would of ravaged his corpse to shreds, the Mother would find the mangled carcass of her son, no doubt.

Taiva narrowed her eyes as to study the wound.

"No," she said. "Someone stabbed him." She was now bent down beside the woman.

"Goddamnit, I don't care who did what to him at the moment, he's bleeding to death!"

Flinching, she tried not to take offense to the woman's words. Indeed, she was right, if not also a bit abrupt. Honestly though, she couldn't blame her. There was her son, damaged, unconscious and bloodied, dying in her arms.

Reaching out to rest a hand near the wound, her fingers stroked the gaping hole and began to glow a light tint of forest green. Her eyes were shut in concentration, but she suddenly opened them again in a matter of moments after.

The stab wound between the boy's ribs had declined it's bleeding before she would stop the process of healing it.

She could sense it, something that wasn't right. Something invasive and unnatural within the boy's bloodstream.

The night elf thought she could even smell it, a strong, sickening, chemical odor through the scent of all the blood, but there was no telling for sure.

"He's poisoned…" She began, not wanting to meet the eyes of the woman to see her reaction.

"Well, what are you going to do, druid?" There was a hint of sour impatience in the woman's voice.

Taiva had no specialty in the area of healing wounds, although she could briefly lessen the severity of one. The only reason she could do this was because her Mother, being a priestess, had taught her how in the past, incase desperate times ever called for such a thing.

It was obvious now was the time.

"I am no healer." Taiva glanced up to meet the woman's glassy brown eyes, now hooded by slightly furrowed brows.

There was a pang of pity felt there, to see the hopelessness the entire region carried cast upon the sole human female's face was mortifying.

"What I mean to say," The elf corrected herself, "is that since something has poisoned him, I can't simply just close his wounds, either can I fully remove the poison… I'm sorry."

"So why waste your time appearing here?" The woman was now patting her son lightly on the forehead, disdainful expression now becoming a scowl.

The druid couldn't help but sigh inwardly. "I'm trying to do what I can."

She traced the punctured flesh with her fingers again, once more shutting her eyes in concentration. This time the skin around the wound began to scab, the bleeding had almost ceased altogether. She knew the boy needed a proper healer, not one like herself.

"Go now," she proclaimed, "bring him back to the keep. Make haste. I can only do so much."

The woman blankly nodded to night elf and gave empty words of thanks. She scooped up the limp child by the back of his knees and shoulders, making a small grunt by the effort and grabbed the rifle, racing back into the mist the direction the druid had came from.

Taiva just knelt on the dampened ground and stared at her own digits, now covered in the blood of an innocent child. A more disturbing thought about the situation came to mind as she did so. It was something that woke her from the perfect world she had seen so far in her younger days, and bought her to reality.

Somewhere out there, someone's hands were coated in the poor thing's blood too, but not because they were aiding his wounds, rather because they had done such a horrifying deed- without a regret.

...

The sky, now hued orange and pink seemed so out of context to the somber colors of Borean Tundra.

Everywhere she would look, she would see different shades of brown, like the matted dry grass, bush and soil, grey in the stone pillars, or even whiteness that splotched the mountains in the distance. But the sun had begun to set, and the time of day surprisingly made the clouded sky a beautiful display of colors.

It almost seemed unreal, that some place so plagued and troubled could at all be beautiful.

Taiva knew, however, that the beautiful part was soon to end. The colors were soon to fade away in a matter of hours, give or take; instead, immense darkness would spread across the region in the form of night. Judging by the thick blanket of clouds that never seemed to be cast away, it would likely be an empty, moon and starless night.

Her eyesight was quite strong in the gloom obviously, but she could only begin to guess what kind of dangerous creatures would come out at night, taking advantage of the shadows. And so she found that it would be most logical to search out a place for the night. Her journey would continue on tomorrow, and she would finally be out of this unsightly place.

Thoughts of being able to leave the region the next day was enough to give Taiva the will to go on. The excitement of battle made her pick up a pace to get as close to the borders of Wintergrasp as she could before settling down for the night.

The druid had taken the form of a saber; sleek pale salt tinted fur covered her frame and kept in her body heat. She had been taking advantage of the auxiliary speed it gave her, taken up a good pace and running along the pathway until twilight had come.

The colors faded along with the light, ravishing orange and pink had become dimmed, dull ebon clouds once again.

By the time this happened, her lungs burned and heart raced. The bottoms of the pads on her paws were sore and worn from running on the hard ground. She decided the time to stop travelling would be now. She soon found herself strolling casually along the fields along the bases of the snow peaked mountains until she found a suitable spot to rest. She glanced and sniffed about, nothing seemed to be askew here in the least.

Something about being in her animal forms calmed her down. It made her feel more attuned to nature, even in such unnatural parts. The druid let out a sigh, which came out as a low growl, and shook her haunches to make the pack roll off her back and onto the long grass. It rustled as the wind blew by, and the breeze that once seemed so chilling and alien actually felt nice on her over- sweltered skin.

She then flopped over; sore frame met the cushiony carpet like foliage the terrain had to offer. Golden eyes grew hooded as she gazed into the dark, empty abyss of The Borean Tundra night sky. Surprisingly relaxed, she hadn't even bothered to set up a camp. The day's earlier events had left her with little appetite. She had bought a sleeping roll with her, but found the dry grass rather comfortable.

The shape-shifted druid lay sprawled out on the earth for several moments, blinking slowly and lazily, feeling the effects travelling on foot for the majority of the day had on her. She relaxed her muscles and kneaded the air with her claws, stretching and sinking lower into a state of repose.

She let her guard down, and she really shouldn't have.

Something was caught in the corner of her eye, a large, dark beast-like figure. Taiva scrambled to try to get to her four limbs, but immediately felt impact on her side. The creature barreled into her, it sent her tumbling, she yelped before she was pinned down by a heavy weight, massive claws of the creature pressed against her furred chest.

Then, she could clearly see what the attacker was.

Looming above her own, was the face of a massive brown bear. It snorted and growled at her in warning, the druid did the same back before her lithe cat frame became that of a large ursine to match her opponent.

The druid was now at clear advantage in the assault, her bestial form being slightly larger and evidently more knowledgeable.

She drew all her strength to her forelimbs to impel the attacker from her own body, heavily muscled appendages pushed against its ribcage and detached the offending creature from her torso. The bear hauled itself on back limbs after stumbling rearwards from Taiva.

It stood, immensely tall in stature and bared its teeth in a bubbling growl, no more than a foot away from the druid.

She was quick to pull herself from the earth, rising on hind legs herself to size the creature up. The serenity she had experienced just moments before the attack was completely abolished. Instead, she found herself acting no less than an animal herself. The only evidence she was a Night elf rested in her physical appearance. Ears of an ursine that should be rounded were lengthier and pointed, and yellow eyes still had an illuminant, sentient glow.

Taiva then lunged towards the creature, long curved claws meeting pelt, but could barely impale flesh due to the thickness of the wooly fur that covered it. The bear closed its jaws around Taiva's shoulder, and she roared in pain and anger before unhooking her right limb from its flank to strike it across its eyes. She could feel her claws tear through the thin flesh on its skull and blood dampen her fur.

Wounded, the bear loosened its grasp on the druid's shoulder briefly, and Taiva knew it was the time to strike again. Her jaws clamped onto its jugular, leaving the bear momentarily breathless. The druid could feel her teeth piercing through skin and could taste something metallic in her mouth. She then violently jerked her head to the side.

Finally liberated from the bear's jaws, she threw her neck to the side again, and this time, the creature moved along with it.

Letting go of her hold, the creature went limp to the ground. Its breath came out in noisy, staggered pants.

All four limbs of the druid met the earth once more. Taiva kept her distance back. She knew it couldn't possibly be able to attack her again, therefore she stood and studied it with both growing curiosity and caution. There were no native bears in Borean Tundra. An enemy's hunting pet was the only possible explanation.

The druid unshifted, silhouette became the slender frame of an elven woman once more. Blood of the beast coated her now humanoid arm and trailed down her cheek. Taiva wiped it away with a hand. She'd always be messy after combat like this, but it was something she had grown accustomed to.

She moved around the creature to gather her staff, knife-edged blade gleaming silver in the brown grass, the only thing that told her where it was in the long foliage. If combat had to make her a mess like this, she could at least be able to finish it off while keeping herself relatively clean.

With that, she would make haste to execute it.

Fingers closed around the handle of the staff as she stalked closer around the bear. Taiva regained her composure and actually felt pity for the thing, but shoved the thoughts from her head as soon as they came. It bought this on itself by attacking her, after all.

Blade raised above the neck of the animal, she was prepared to slice its head clean off and end its misery. The druid took a final step closer.

SNAP!

Taiva cursed in her own language and dropped the staff onto the earth, hands instead flying to her left ankle where an extreme jolt of pain was felt.

A steel jawed trap had clasped around her leather boot. It would have dug deep into her leg as well. The thin material had stopped just a bit of the force, and it still punctured quite far into her skin.

As if conditions for the druid couldn't have become much worse, her head snapped up to the sound of a clicking gun. Sharp eyes caught the sight of a figure, carrying a large blunderbuss aimed pointedly at her head.

A troll stood beside his collapsed pet. Brows furrowed, and she could tell he didn't look pleased. She stared back at him, dumbfounded. She had only taken a glance at her injured leg for a brief second.

_When will I ever learn not to let my guard down?_


	3. Abrade

How could she have overlooked the fact the hunter would be nearby?

Oh, did he ever look angry. Taiva had seen a few Trolls in her lifetime, but never so close up like this. Locked in place and heart pounding wildly in her chest, she could only fixate her gaze on him. She wouldn't show any signs of fear, not in front of the enemy. Even so, she thought his appearance to be quite daunting. Extensive slightly yellowed tusks curved from his thick lips, wild, wiry mane of sunset hair framed his broad face. His eyes were blood red, deep-set and unforgiving.

She wanted to reach down and pick up her staff, there and then. It was right by her foot, the one not in the grasp of those wretched steel jaws denying her of mobility, so temptingly placed; gleaming blades almost seemed to be winking at her. She would likely be able to swing it with ease in an attempt to end the troll, as it was her first intention to do so to his foolish bear, but she wouldn't get far after that. Any sudden movements and he'd likely pull the trigger. Her efforts would all be in despair, and she'd fall to the ground, dead and alone. He would likely just walk away, take his injured pet along with him and pretend nothing had ever happened. That's how they all were, weren't they? Weren't all members of the Horde merciless beasts?

Well actually, the certain Tauren she'd come to know of in Moonglade were not like that in any way, despite the fact they were the owners of the most bestial appearance among races of the Horde. She didn't consider them to count as members of the Horde though, because they were all only _affiliated_ with the Cenarion Circle.

They were often peaceful beings, and they would gladly share knowledge of the different things they knew with her. From them, she learned more of her Druidic arts, even after training. Though Taiva wasn't a member of the Cenarion Circle herself, they would treat her with respect nonetheless, and she would always be willing to listen to their teachings. The things they taught her about druidism wouldn't help her here though, but something else may.

"And you are…?" She managed to choke out a sentence in Orcish. Though she had became fluent and developed a well understanding of the language over the years by learning from the Tauren, she knew herself she carried out a heavy Darnassian accent in her speech. None of that was her concern right now, the pressing matter was the gun aimed at her head. Though she obviously was one, she knew better than to seem a threat. For now she'd try and play coy.

The troll cocked a brow at her, after her snappy bit of orcish, and for a moment his riled expression became almost confounded. He took one hand off the blunderbuss making it point downwards instead, and a wave of relief washed over the Night elf. Perhaps she could make a run for it while he had his gun lowered a bit. He seemed to have taken advantage of a brief moment in which she wasn't all focused on her surroundings, why couldn't she? Thoughts about herself stumbling clumsily about trying to run away with a trap on her leg flashed through her mind.

Oddly though, he didn't seem as menacing as he did before.

_He can still blow your head off if he wants to, idiot._

"I be da guy who dat bear belongs ta. Dah one ya nearly put ta death."

He rubbed the back of his head with his free hand almost awkwardly.

"Uh, so yah be part of DEHTA den?"

Taiva suppressed the urge to smirk. She couldn't believe it. He actually thought she was a member of DEHTA just because she was a druid and could speak orcish? Well maybe Trolls _were_ as naïve as she was told them to be.

If it were going to save her life, then she would have to just play along. She hated having to lie, she really did, but it's not like she had any other option that may keep her alive in the situation. If she were to say something like: "Nah, I'm still an enemy with every intention to kill you but can just speak your language," he'd likely turn the blunderbuss right back at her.

In a way, she wasn't really lying, rather ignoring his question and letting his own ignorance believe what it wants to.

"So that's your pathetic excuse of a pet then, you should have kept him under control." She shrugged and feigned innocence.

"I was minding my own business, honestly. You look a little pissed about his fate, but he should have known better than to fight a battle he was sure to lose." Taiva stated in a smug, matter-of-factly kind of way.

The temporary puzzled expression on the troll's face was almost immediately washed away as soon as she said that, and replaced with the same intimidating, angered scowl she had seen before. Whether his own mind thought of her to be neutral or not, she still felt her heart beat quicken. The druid found herself biting on her bottom lip both because of the pain that was shooting up her ankle, and the fact she wished she could bite back the words that bought him back into his previous state.

The troll gestured towards his bear, now a slowly heaving heap of fur resting on its side by him in the grass.

"I sent Ek aftah ya 'cause I thought ya be some dumb animal out in dah open who make fo' an' easy kill. Wasn't 'is fault."

"Oh, alright. Then it was yours. Turns out the dumb animal wasn't an animal or dumb in the least. You don't have to come about sulking and pointing guns at me."

She heard the bear, "Ek", apparently, grunt from behind the Troll, and he bought his other hand to grip the gun again. He didn't exactly point it at her, but just the fact her fate rested on whether or not he felt like shooting her wasn't comforting at all.

"Yah know, I be wonderin' why ah druid so keen on protectin' animals be shakin' dat poor thing silly in her jaws before takin initiative tah chop 'is head off."

_Shit. _He didn't buy it after all.

"But I'm not gonna kill yah." He continued.

Taiva narrowed her eyes at him. "Such a generous notion. And why is that?"

She should have been relieved he said he wasn't going to kill her, but she still wasn't sure of his intentions. He had seen her just about to kill his pet, in whom he seemed so attached to and angered about.

The troll took a moment to swing his gun around his back. But he knew better than to keep himself defenseless, Taiva could see, even if she had her staff on the ground and her foot jammed up in some trap. He kept his right, three fingered hand by a long dagger strapped to his waist.

"'Cause as I said befo', I dint come out here tah be huntin' helpless elfies. Da trap aint made for yah, ain't it obvious?"

_Isn't that nice, he got to see my clumsy stumble into his hunting trap as well._

For a moment she actually thought that he might have not seen her step in it. It was well hidden in the grass, and he hadn't mentioned anything about it up until now. She was proved wrong, however.

The troll stepped away from his pet and began to move closer to the druid. The rattling of his chain link armor and quiet pants of the beast behind him was all that she could hear in the still night air. Her muscles tensed as he neared, and he stopped less than a foot away.

"I tell yah what, elfie. I be makin' a deal wit' yah."

From being closer to her, Taiva could better see his face. He looked perhaps middle aged in observation, slight creases in his blue-grey skin betraying his otherwise youthful appearance. She wasn't certain how old he exactly was, but doubted he was as aged as that human woman she'd came across earlier.

"And what is that?" she questioned cautiously, gritting her teeth at the increasing pain on her ankle. She could now feel blood on the smooth leather against her leg.

The hunter gestured at her ankle, the sharp jaws of the trap had torn up the material of her boot, and Taiva could feel the tension of it getting to her. It was apparent she was bleeding by it, even if you couldn't see it under the leather. She couldn't help but shift away uncomfortably from the troll when he neared, but the slight movement had greatened the pain tenfold.

A smug grin spread upon the Troll's face, only seeming bigger by his protruding tusks. Taiva knew he was probably pleased with how his stupid trap was hurting her.

"It be uncomfortable for yah, I can see. Perhaps yah are a dumb animal aftah all, I nevah got the chance tah catch anythin' worthwhile in it, even actual dumb animals know bettah than ta be walkin' up into da trap. Wit' dat attitude yah be lucky I stopped considerin ta leave tha elfie here."

He was enjoying bashing her obviously, but she wouldn't complain. As long as he was taking out his frustrations on her in broken words and not by breaking her skull open, she couldn't care less. Taiva was actually taking amusement in the way he talked, and smirked a bit. Even her grammar in the foreign language was better than a troll's.

The Troll looked at her and frowned. "Wat is it yah find tah be amusing? Tha fact yah could be left here tah rot?"

Taiva forcefully got rid of her own smile and tried to keep a straight face.

"No, not at all." There was still a hint of laughter there, but she suppressed it completely in her next phrase. She wouldn't tell the troll she found _him_ amusing, as she thought it would be best not to further offend the enemy in the sort of useless state she was in. Instead, she nonchalantly met his gaze. "Stopped considering leaving me here, you say? What is it you have in mind then?"

"I acknowledge mah mistakes, I expect dah elfie ta know 'ers too." The troll shrugged. "Can't really hold ah grudge on yah for fightin' back 'gainst Ek, I plan on bandagin' him, it's no biggie. But thing is, while he be ah loyal pet, he also be ah heavy load tah carry back tah camp fo' some medical help."

Taiva squinted at a small flickering orange spark in the distance, past the wide fields of open brown grass, as he mentioned 'camp'. She had noticed it before, it was at least a half mile away from where she was and pretty well hidden amongst the bases of the mountains so it didn't concern her much on whether or not it was an enemy's campfire. Seeing said enemy was before her and caused her some issues she could of spared, she probably should have been concerned.

So, that's what he wanted with this "deal" of his? He needed her assistance to drag along that forsaken bear she caused damage to in the first place. What was in it for her though was him not killing her for it, she supposed, and well, he couldn't expect her to be able to aid him with the declining wellness of her ankle. In this case, there couldn't have been a better offer. Some mild labor wasn't such a bad outcome to the situation considering he had a gun pointed at her head mere moments before.

Oh, and the fact he also admitted he needed help carrying that likely quarter ton bear a mile to his camp was some humility she thought a troll would never have. She would of thought he'd be able to take his pet there himself, she didn't deny the Troll before her was exceptionally tall in stature and had quite a muscular build. Solitarily, however it's not an easy task or at least one you can complete in time before the creature bleeds to death. Taiva less-than reluctantly nodded.

"I see where you're going. I oblige, but may I request something first?" She responded as coolly as she could. "On my behalf?" the Night elf added in.

The Troll rolled his hands out in a gesture for her to go on in her speech.

"Get this fucking thing off my foot, and stop calling me elfie."

She flashed him a sarcastically polite grin to match her tone.

"Ah, such etiquette yah have, elfie." He had already kneeled down in the grass and started tweaking with some springs and other odd metal parts Taiva wouldn't bother to ask about. She observed his doings for a few minutes slightly uneasily, his bare arm brushing against the skin of her calf while he tinkered with the device. The apparatus made a loud clinking noise and loosened. The Night elf breathed a sigh of relief from the pain when it did so, the jaws didn't seem to be squeezing her ankle so much anymore, but the next words had her worrying.

"Brace yahself." The troll whispered after waiting a moment. He had his hands around the jaws of the trap, still cutting deep into her ankle. He then began to pry it off. It wasn't just like some bandage that you would rip off quickly; there wasn't just pain for a matter of seconds. He pulled at it torturously slow; though she knew it was for the better. He didn't want to risk doing anymore damage, and for this, she was grateful, he could have been careless. Taiva balled her fists at her sides out of agony and quickly turned her gaze to the inky sky in hopes to be distracted. Waves of pain shot up her leg. Her ankle felt like it was on fire. _Goddess, help me._ Her golden eyes squeezed shut, and she couldn't help but let out an afflicted gasp.

"Yah… alright dere?"

She heard the rattling of the metal device being lifted from her ankle.

Taiva opened her eyes again. The troll was standing up straight again- or as straight as a troll would often stand, bloodied hunting trap dangling in hand. Dark red eyes burned through her comfort, and she felt her face flush.

Taiva cleared her throat awkwardly and quickly replied. "Er, yes, I'm fine." She straightened out her fingers in a rush to regain composure and flicked a lock of white hair out of her eyes to dare a glance down at her mangled boot. Even knowing she wouldn't be pleased with how torn up it must have been, it was a decent excuse to not have to look back at that Troll who was still staring at her. After kneeling down and undoing the laces and buckles to lift it off her leg, she slid it off and forcefully suppressed herself grimacing. She threw it to the side and it landed by her staff.

The dreadful wounds on her leg were in view now, sharp punctures along her lilac flesh like the large teeth marks of the steel jaws. Taiva turned away and sat down on the grass she came to love for its comfort, injured ankle propped up on one thigh as she sat cross-legged. She then started to run her fingers lightly over the skin, ivy light emitted in the gloom of the night. When she was done, they were minor slices, the inconvenience they'd cause be pale in comparison to their previous condition.

Taiva could still feel the eyes of that Troll hunter on her. She took a quick glimpse over her shoulder and confirmed this, then nonchalantly stood and started to make her way towards her sack of supplies several feet away. "Why do you find the need to be looking at me like that?" she questioned, trying her best to sound unconcerned. "Is it that I'm taking too long?" She was now rummaging through her supplies, finally pushing some woven blankets out of the way to find the bandages underneath.

"Nah." He waved his hand in the air, dismissing the idea and watching her wrap her ankle in the material. "Take as long as yah want."

Taiva tore the fabric from the rest of the roll to keep it on her ankle after she finished, and tucked it back into her sack. She glanced back at the Troll slightly puzzled.

_Was he using sarcasm or not?_

She found it hard to tell with that accent of his, but decided to shrug it off. It didn't matter. "Well then, shall we go now?" She stood from the ground, pulling her sack on her shoulder and began to make her way back towards her staff and the mangled boot. The Troll stepped infront of her, blocking her path.

"Nice try elfie. Yah leav'in yah junk 'ere." He articulated it in a way that was more like a command.

Taiva narrowed her eyes irritably. "Oh, am I? I didn't know you could see into the future." She tried to shuffle to the side and go around him, but he put his arm out across her.

"I am not in da mood fo' yah foolish games." Something about the way he said that made the druid reluctantly back away, and sent a shudder down her spine. There was that same compelling edge to it as when she heard him speak before. She dropped her sack off of her shoulder and stood there, staring at him. He was still an enemy, just one who wanted to negotiate.

…

The walk in the direction of the Troll's camp was silent. Neither of them said anything, despite the growling in the druid's ear every so often. The troll assured her that "Ek" wouldn't harm her if he commanded him not to, even when he could easily take a bite out of her neck from being at this proximity. _How comforting._ She found herself carrying the bear by pulling his massive front limbs over her shoulders while the Troll had been carrying the burden by his hind legs. Taiva had been right when guessing that the orange glow in the distance was the fire of the Troll's camp, and by the time he had finally decided to say something, the tiny spark in the distance had progressively grown in size.

"So, if tha elfie does not like tah be referred ta as wat she is, wat shall she be called?" His voice seemed to be booming in comparison to their silent rustle of their footsteps as they treaded in an even pace.

Taiva turned her head to look over her shoulder as best as she could and cocked a brow at him. "Are you asking me what my name is?"

Of course she already knew he had, but found more amusement in hearing him admit to it.

"…I suppose yah can say dat." He replied after a brief moment of silence.

"I think sometimes you should check with yourself if _you're_ willing to answer the question you've asked someone." She heard him grunt behind her after her remark, but it didn't sound to be out of strain while they both walked carrying Ek, rather it sounded out of annoyance. Taiva smirked.

"Tha name's Jul'dan. I can ansa mah own question, don' be thinkin' yah so smart wit' dat snappy tongue ah' yahs."

The weight of her load suddenly increased, and the night elf nearly toppled over. She stopped walking and decided to let the creature slide off her shoulder, and fall carefully onto the ground. Taiva spun on her heels and gave the newly named troll, Jul'dan, a glare. She didn't find the need to use his name though. She didn't know him, and she didn't plan on getting to.

"There you go, sulking about something stupid again. This isn't my pet, but if you don't want to help me because you disagree with something I say, then so be it. I don't know how else you're supposed to get him there."

"Such an arrogant leetl elfie yah are." His voice was laced with a chuckle, and that only fueled the fire that was Taiva's temperament.

"I thought we had a 'deal'." She mocked him. "I thought not calling me _elfie_ was something for my half of it."

"Den tell mah. What's yah name?"

The druid looked at some invisible spot in the grass and grudgingly muttered. "Taiva."

"Ah, yah gotta learn tah speak up. I dint 'ere yah."

She snapped her head towards him, golden eyes glaring. "Taiva." She said it with venom. It seemed like he enjoyed getting the better out of her as much as she did him.

"Dere we go. Good el— Taiva." He was completely unaffected by the fact he was pissing her off, and he made it obvious.

"Leave your petty praising for your foolish bear. Tell me why we've stopped."

"It'd be best for yah ta not come anymore near. I can take Ek da rest ah da way. Be ah real shame if yah had ta come out all da way out 'ere only ta get yah pretty head sliced off."

Taiva felt her anger wash out of her slightly. At least he wasn't trying to lead her into a trap, if there were others there who would kill her on sight. "I thought you were the only one out here. Why are you around these parts anyway?"

Jul'dan chuckled again, to her annoyance. "See wat I mean wen I say dat yah arrogant? Why would yah assume dat for? An' perhaps ya should take yah own advice. Check wit yahself if yah are willin ta ansa yah own question befo' yah ask it." He made his way over to Ek, and the druid stepped away from him to allow him space as he pulled him over his shoulders. She was silent, in fact, part of her agreed with that Troll. She sort of was a hypocrite in a way.

"I don't get you, Jul'dan." The Troll had already began to stride away slowly with the bear over his broad shoulders. However, he halted when Taiva said his name. She could tell he was listening.

"You saw I could heal myself back where we were before. You saw that I even had bandages after that. I don't understand why you couldn't have me tend to your pet there and spare the labor and troubles for the both of us."

Jul'dan glanced back at her. It was difficult to decipher what emotions were on his face, or what was going through his mind. "I couldah. But mayba dah labor and troubles were wort' it." Taiva gawked at him when she saw a crooked grin on his face. "Same reason I dint shoot yah. I find yah interestin'."

He turned his head away and started to move again in the direction of the flickering campfire, pace slowed by the weight of the beast.

"See you around then." The druid called after him.

_What the hell am I thinking? Of course I won't._

She heard Jul'dan sigh. The troll sounded displeased, although she wasn't sure why. He called back to her before disappearing into the distance within the shadows of the night. "I hope dat is not dah case. If I be see'in yah again it is likely 'cause I'm supposed tah kill yah."


	4. Blunder

It was that type of unsettling feeling one would get when something wasn't right. It could be a problem, or some sort of issue conflicting a situation, but truth was, no matter how hard she tried, Taiva couldn't pinpoint what it was. That, or either she didn't want to, and shoved it down, convincing herself over and over there simply wasn't. Even so, it never did fully dissipate. It still clawed at her like a disease that could never be abolished if not cured.

Taiva found time to rummage through the thoughts that swam in her mind, made murky by the encounter of the previous night. For now, she found the air her feathered wings allowed access to a safe domain, and as her avian eyes wandered the scarred lands of Wintergrasp, she wandered through her own mentality. It had never occurred to her before that she could actually be averse to the task she was expected to complete. A gust of chilling wind brought the shape-shifted druid up higher above the landscape. Bones, weapons and armor were concealed within the shimmering snow and ice, the sun's heat-less rays would make them sparkle a smattering bit more than the colorless particles that heavily sheeted the terrain. It could have been a beautiful sight, but in fact, to Taiva, it was foreboding, nothing but the ominous moment of silence before a storm. The storm to her would be known as war. Such a moment would bring flashbacks to the night elf, and she could once again imagine herself several years back, ducking low in the underbrush of the silent Ashenvale forest, the quiet moment before an ambush on the enemies that plagued the area. They would call it 'training', and she wouldn't think much of it then, to kill another member of an opposing faction would rouse no remorse whatsoever. But she had changed, and that's why as she soared closer to Wintergrasp Fortress, her stomach would involuntarily knot again.

Taiva made sure to circle around the grand outside walls of the fortress to the large gates at the front. She knew of the shield mages would put up to prevent a mounted enemy from flying in, and she would not want to risk being perceived as one in her shapeshift. Her race would be difficult to identify. They would leave the heavy gates open before an assault, watchers would perch in the high towers of the fort, to tell when an attack would be happening, they'd sound the signal, and Alliance soldiers would rush into battle to try and keep what they had claimed.

As the bird-creature dove down lower near the guards, she could see them move their hands to unsheathe their swords. Taiva unshifted to show she wasn't a threat, flight form becoming humanoid again as both feet planted themselves carefully on the snow. With one look at the night elf, they stood back at their posts without bothering a second glance to her. Taiva gave them a nod in acknowledgment before proceeding forward through the gates. To say that the fortress was crowded would be an understatement. The first outer court-yard of the fortress was almost barren. But as she proceeded through the next entries in the complex design of the entire thing, the statement from beforehand was obvious. She could see many different races of the Alliance, not wasting a moment to prepare for whatever and whenever an assault could happen. She could see men and women approaching certain individuals to receive last minute repairs on their armor. She made note to do so soon as well, thinking a torn up leather boot wouldn't serve well to keep out cold. There were some members of armed classes who were sharpening the blades of their weapons hastily, rubbing the edges of them, fumbling with sharpening stones in numbed, frozen hands. These people would stick along the sides of the walls. She could see them over the heads of the crowd. Like them, Taiva seemed to just be bustling about, not sure what to do for the time being, just waiting for something to happen. As she pushed her way through the final entrance way between the high walls, a ravishing display of architect came into view. The druid would of liked to see the inside room of the fortress, in which magnificent metal rimmed stairs led up to. She imagined the indoors would be the same-breathtakingly sculpted. She tried to make her way through the chaos of busying people, but only had the chance for few quickened steps before something had made her stop in her tracks.

"Sestri!" Taiva called out in the direction of the night elven woman with unmistakable midnight blue hair, clad in druidic robes, who was conversing- or at least listening to some Human man on a horse mount. When she turned around to face her however, Taiva began to wonder if she would have recognized her own childhood friend had she not seen her from behind. There was something different about Sestri, a type of matronly aura she gave off. Perhaps it was that her once unruly, waist-long locks had been cropped to her shoulders and pulled back from her face neatly. The rebellious light in Sestri's silver eyes Taiva came to know almost seemed to be dimmed. Sestri was a living example of how much one could change over a decade. The apathetic expression the dark-haired night elf had upon locking eyes with Taiva stung worse than any wound could have. Did she not recognize her? The next thing she said made it clear that she indeed did, but that could of only made it worse.

"Oh, Taiva. Commander Zanneth requests that more personnel are on foot during the next assault by the Horde, which will be presumably soon. The Alliance has kept Wintergrasp Fortress for nearly a fortnight as of yet, therefore the beasts have came to actually use some strategy in their attacks. We barely held on last time because more of them are manually destroying our siege weapons. We need more to defend them."

Taiva tilted her head at the other night elf and gave her a look.

"I just thought I'd inform you. You were absent when he gave orders." Sestri concluded.

"Yes, I just got here… thank you." Taiva was completely taken aback on Sestri's lack of emotions towards someone she had known for almost, if not more than a century. "How about hello?"

"It's a pleasure to see you again." Sestri flashed Taiva a small smile, if only for the point of being polite, she realized.

"I've been anticipating seeing you again too." Taiva stepped forward to wrap her arms around the other druid in a friendly hug. She felt Sestri tense uncomfortably before bringing one arm around her shoulder. Something was prickling the skin there. Taiva stepped backwards and took Sestri's ungloved left hand off her shoulder, gaping at it.

"You have a husband!" She stared at the metal band around the other druid's finger.

Sestri nodded her head fondly, ice blue cheeks flushing, although it may easily have been because of the cold. "Indeed."

She gently ushered her own hand away from the grasp of her friend and brought it to her side.

Taiva subdued the urge to frown, "Goodness, it seems like the little trouble maker has grown up." She couldn't help but feel her own life seemed to be stilled during her tranquil years in Moonglade, and Sestri had continued on her own path, it seemed, even found a mate. Now she had acted as if she outgrown her own companion. Maybe Taiva was just being immature for expecting her to act as if they hadn't parted for even a day. "Do tell me who he is." She prodded.

"Dholon."

Taiva raised a brow at Sestri's unexpected reply. "Oh?" She nodded her head and smiled. "Well then, I'm very happy for the both of you."

Opposites attracted, or so it seemed. Marrying the easy-going, disciplined druid trainer was almost the last thing she thought would be happening with Sestri over the last ten years. He had an affect on her personality too, and it was obvious. What troubled Taiva though was she wasn't sure herself whether or not it was for the better. She didn't know the woman before her anymore.

Any prolonged conversation the two of them could have had standing around the fortress was cut rather short. Sestri had only begun to go on some more about battle strategies, and Taiva reluctantly bobbed her head to show she was listening. It could have been hours, or it could have just been that she wasn't at all interested in what she should have been, but a long low horn immediately quieted everyone gathered in the fortress. She knew what it was. An assault was on the horizon.

"Stay by me in combat, Taiva. Just like old times, right?"

Taiva eyed the other night elf and feigned a pleased smile before she turned away to follow the flow of the crowd. "Of course."

…

The first thing she heard was the clanking and sputtering of machinery, even her own breath was controlled and silent, and she muted it out to intently listen on the approaching craft. The first thing she caught sight of was their dark metal forms, edging over the snowy terrain, hues shadowy in contrast to the bleach around them. There was luckily only one in the area apparently, but since the siege engines were none of her concern, never mind the fact her pursuit to take them down with tooth and claw would be a failing one, she let them pass to the casters waiting further up ahead. She and Sestri were stealthed as large felines, waiting for the enemies who would follow shortly behind, along with an unnamed group of comrades she decidedly followed into the battlefield. Other Alliance soldiers were hidden over the hill nearby- across the path that ran through like a shallow valley; archers she believed, pulling arrows back on their bows, ready for release. Even she couldn't see them, but rather could sense they were there.

Taiva flexed her claws in the snow, making her best attempt of crawling over silently a bit up ahead to peer over the hillside. She glanced over to the path that winded and eventually disappeared between a few miniature ashen-coated fells. There'd be no way to see any approaching enemies down the path easily if there were so. It'd be merely a waiting game. Even at her certain vantage point, she could do nothing until they actually came into view.

_When are those damn beasts going to show? _She just wanted it all over and done with, frankly though, even she didn't know why.

A shakily moving figure on the hill's peak drew her attention almost immediately. It was too late for the archers to strike, starting off what could have been a well placed ambush. Could have been, if not for the fact one of them came stumbling down the hill with a dagger between his shoulders. She narrowed her eyes and identified him as a dwarven hunter by his stubby body. It was then when Taiva heard some sort of strange guttural sound that could have been the maniatic cackle of a forsaken rogue who showed himself shortly after, blurredly rippling out of seemingly thin air. She could feel the atmosphere around her tense, and heard one of the comrades behind her curse under his breath. However, no one would come out of their cover to give aid in the least. There was a sickening kind of pang Taiva felt with the fact.

Mutilated, the dwarven hunter stopped and fell face down in the snow, sliding down the slope until his motionless body came onto the grey cobblestone path. His stocky arms surprisingly flailed out, after what Taiva thought was his inevitable demise, trying to reach the weapon he had dropped along with him the way down. That rogue she caught sight of crept over silently as the dwarf made an attempt to grab hold of his crossbow and arm himself again. It was ignorance that drove the hunter to outstretch a thick hand, shifting forward in his place while the rogue loomed silently behind him. Before the dwarf made any movement, he could have very well been taken as dead. He should have stayed still- but hell, he didn't. As Taiva watched the course take place, she almost regretted his actions for him. He was completely unaware of the undead unsheathing the other of his long dagger, extremely similar to the one that stuck out of the dwarf. He bought it over his neck, and Taiva couldn't bear to watch. If no one was going to do anything about it, she would.

She crawled further ahead up the slope, so that one could have possibly seen her silhouetted against the skyline, if not in stealth. A suspiciously familiar feminine voice was snapping at her, and made her whip her feline head around. "Taiva."

The other druid in her dark, feral form was calling at her in the loudest whisper she could have likely mustered up. "Don't-"

Taiva's eyes glared resentfully as she interrupted Sestri. "I'm not hiding back here like a coward to witness someone die. This is disgusting. I did expect better from you, Sestri." There was no reply from the other night elf after the last remark. That, or either she didn't stay around to hear it by then. Both adrenaline and anguish pulsed through her entire being and made blood roar in her ears. Taiva was already sprinting half way down the slope, a blurry alabaster hued figure in the midst of a bounding stride. She already broke off her stealth to excel at such a speed, but it didn't matter. The rogue's back facing her was an opportune moment for the druid to take her leap, and that she did.

Barreling into the undead didn't do much to capsize him, but in fact, when curved claws gripped into his bony shoulders, she couldn't possibly be more pleased. Rogues wore leather, she could recall, and with knowing her fangs would pierce through the armor at the enemy's neck as competently as the steel teeth of the trap had done to her boot, came the next action of lunging her gaped jaws forward to the former subject. The same arm that was equipped with the dagger whipped back with a speed Taiva couldn't possibly prepare for. Both velocities of her cranium diving forward and the elbow lashing back landed a blunt hit to her skull that made her vision nearly engulfed by blackness. It also managed to knock her off quite swiftly, and it only came into her realization when the solidity and coldness of the rogue's body was replaced with moving air, followed by impact on hard, stone path.

It was then that her gaze involuntarily fell upon him, as he kicked the motionless dwarf to the side purposely. The body rolled over on the cobblestone, leaving a trailing stain of dark blood, and was staring blankly at her with eyes only a dead being could possess, void and unblinking. The rogue loomed above the night elf as she struggled to regain composure, lithely muscled feline frame suddenly beginning to feel weakened as she dissipated into her humanoid form. Her breaths were quick, jagged and panicked, but her golden eyes burned with deep, unforgiving hatred. The undead bent down slightly, chuckling in that deathly way he had before. "Stupid girl." And as if he were never there at all, his entire visible presence rippled away.

Out of any reasons why having an understanding of the enemy's language could bring dismay, that would likely be it, to hear the taunt or insult, and unable to do anything about such a thing that fueled her anger. "Bastard!" Taiva screamed into the nothingness that surrounded her. Truth was, it only ate at her more because she seemed to be proving the remark true.

Her eyes shot over to several shapes winding around down the path and she knew she really _was_ stupid.

This ambush, set up, or what ever you would call the failing attempt was taking another turn, and once again only for the worse. The initial purpose of the rogue was clear there and then. The druid and her comrades were victims to their own intended trap. Humanoid figures, at least several dozen of them came into her view, and she quickly knew there were more members of the Horde, taking advantage of the distraction the undead caused as they crept up with undeniable speed over the horizon.

Taiva was dumbstruck, almost as frozen as the lifeless being on the path beside her, and now she was alone and defenseless in the midst all of it. Her head whipped around to her name being called. _What the hell was it now?_

It could have been a curse or a gift that Sestri had apparently followed her quickly behind. She couldn't decide, but the pathetic display of her bolting to unaffectedly better the situation was nothing she should waste time being worried about at the moment. Pain still pounded at her skull, but she could still give focus onto what the other druid was saying.

Sestri narrowed her eyes at her. "Don't- go on without me." She said, a sly kind of grin spread across her feline face as she allowed herself to complete the sentence Taiva hadn't stayed to hear from beforehand.

"Come out and fight, idiots." Her voice echoed over the hills, clearly aiming to reach the Alliance members hidden behind them. Taiva smirked, an action slightly out of context to the situation. Well, there was one thing to count on. She hadn't lost the straight-forward Sestri yet.

Sestri's dark ears flicked towards the direction of the Horde Taiva herself was aware of before. And few by few, the hidden Alliance members came out from their perch and joined the two on the path, apprehensive as if the stone were cracked thin ice with a potential to break at any given moment.

"We're leaving now. Follow me." Sestri spoke out sternly to Taiva, glancing out down the path as the shapes of enemies grew larger and evidently closer. She unshifted and held out a hand towards her companion. When Taiva did none but stare at her in disbelief, she finally turned to catch the expression on her face.

"You said it yourself, Taiva. It'd be a disgusting thing to do to watch someone die when there's a perchance of prevention."

_A perchance of prevention? Then why hadn't you come to aid earlier?_

Taiva, on the ground felt quite pathetic needing help to get up. But after trying to lift herself up on her own, she noticed how weak she really was, and the motion nearly made her see non-existent dark blotches again. She finally gave herself consent to take the hand, but made best attempts to shove the feeling of weakness off.

"What are you talking about?" She questioned, failing to keep the fire out of her tone after finally regaining an upward stance. She let go as soon as she no longer needed to grip the hand. "We need to be here."

There was an orange flickering light in the corner of her weary vision, and a large rock landed ablaze, just a little way stray from the group and shook the nearby terrain.

"They've got demolishers!" She heard some woman's voice in the midst of several dozen Alliance members. And Taiva could tell the statement correct, when the same sputtering of machinery that had bypassed the area before, or at least almost equivalent. This time, it wasn't as pronounced in the atmosphere, merely because this craft was smaller.

Sestri already turned her back, as if expecting Taiva to let her lead out of the area. She didn't bother making eye contact. "This time, you may not get a lucky break scampering off into the battlefield."

Taiva balled her fists at her side. _How dare she say that._

"I'm fine. Don't be like this, we can't just go." She snapped.

Sestri turned around again, with the same apathetic expression across her soft features. "It's a miracle you weren't knocked unconscious from that blow. I can tell more than you from just looking at you. You're not fit for combat, and doing so because you think it's your 'duty' like how it just was with that rogue and the dwarf is suicide."

Another one of those flaming boulders hit the slope nearby, and war calls rang through the air, followed by the sound of shifting metal armor and hurried footsteps. Taiva was still staring at Sestri, so she couldn't distinguish which party the noise was coming from. Perhaps it was both.

She gave distasteful grunt, but stepped towards her to show she'd finally gave in, if only to end the vexatious reasons Sesti would find why to leave. She studied her though, there was something else, something she wasn't revealing to Taiva. And she could tell purely from the forcedly impassive demeanor one would have if they were lying.

The two trotted around the hill; eventually coming completely off the path, pushing through lifeless underbrush that seemed so frozen and cracked it hadn't had life in the first place. The same type of bush grew all the way down the ravine surprisingly well-spread for the type of habitat it'd have to thrive in. It was a type of groove in the ground they walked along, perhaps rutted awhile ago from a stray vehicle. Even so, it seemed a pretty barren area, the constant snagging of the branches as Taiva would try to get through, was to her annoyance, and it was quite obvious someone would have to actually cause damage to the icy plants before anymore steps were accessible. In this case, Sestri had already taken a lead, leaving the addled druid to try and keep up, bearing through the misplaced and dismantled twigs. In the nearly concussive state Taiva had been in, moving at a similar pace to keep up wasn't an easy task, and it only came to her that Sestri was slowing her own when every now and then she'd wander off too far ahead, then obviously curse herself for doing so after the realization of it. Taiva would follow up and catch Sestri stopped and waiting for her.

It was one of these moments when Taiva decided to unbind the silence the two of seemed to suffer and say something, rather loud to the figure ahead she couldn't see at all.

"If I do recall correctly, there are direct paths that fork off from the road we came off of awhile ago… is there a reason we are taking this way back to the fortress?" She moved another broken branch out of the way that Sestri had previously torn through, snow flinging to and fro, only regaining a brief glimpse of her before she started off at a fast pace again, hearing that her follower had caught up.

Taiva let loose a sigh. As Sestri disappeared from sight, she wondered if sustaining herself through bushwhacking like this was really any better for her than the combat the other night elf seemed too eager to avoid.

"It lessens the chances we'll go detected." Replied the unwavering voice of the woman she couldn't even see.

Taiva halted, considering what had just been said. "Undetected? I'm sorry, but I haven't a clue why you're so driven to get out of here at such a rapid pace. It's not like I'm just going to drop dead any second, you know."

Oh, the irony in it. If it had been that she did not take a blow to the head, and her senses were acute like how she had trained herself to be, she could have heard someone creeping up from behind. Unfortunately, not paying attention seemed to be becoming a crude habit of hers lately. Reality gave her a hard punch, though, square in the face. Before she could relatively tell what was happening, something unnaturally frigid touched her exposed neck. A blade was pressed against her throat, after an arm seized her in her place, re-whetting the adrenaline she left on the battlefield.

Sestri was off ahead somewhere, so when the branches shook and parted, a figure stepping out was confirmed almost immediately not to be her. With all words she could have said at the moment, three could only escape her. "Not you again."


	5. Deluded

Author's Notes: No, I'm not dead and no, the story hasn't been abandoned. Okay, so I hate myself for letting it get to this point and procrastinating when it came to publishing the chapter. Everything got so busy and I suddenly found myself with less free time to use for writing. But once I start something, I ALWAYS have to finish it. I'd be driven insane by just letting it collect dust at the bottom of my computer files, so I finally got around to it. Things have been sorted out and there is no way there will be a delay like this again. I just won't allow it.

On that note, please accept my sincerest of apologies. Read, and hopefully enjoy. And as always- -reviews are much loved :)

Taiva would never forget a face. It was to her surprise, or even to her dismay that a crown tempered so brutally with a blow she was still obviously failing to register did not cease the ability. She didn't cease the ability in the situation. She thought for a moment it could have been how she managed to recognize Sestri earlier, after all the changes, it definitely was plausible one could find her unrecognizable.

The firm arm across her chest was drawn tighter, it was a cruel action, and likely not needed. She couldn't think of a way she could manage to possibly flee. In fact, it did nothing but contribute to more so a difficulty taking an inward breath. It was the pressure against her frame that made the night elf sway a little, and from that, she received a stinging thread-thin slice on delicate skin. It was an eye-opener to the seriousness of the situation. They were not here to be friends.

Taiva changed her mind. It wasn't the constriction that threw her breathing askew, it was panic.

Those features, even when between the lines and folds of an unreadable expression on the other being's blue-grey face were still discernible in her eyes. The being that she gaped at had familiar blood red eyes, without a doubt anything but her own race's.

A lighter thought came to mind, probably unsuitable to the situation. She remembered the common belief of opposing races that every member of the other looked merely the same. This wasn't the case with her, she couldn't shake the gut-wrenching feeling that she had been stalked or followed by the Troll she had met up with before for reasons undetermined. If she had thought for a moment it was nothing but paranoia taking place, that he was just some stranger she had never seen before, it wasn't likely that the "stranger" found himself accompanied by a dishearteningly familiar bear.

Disheartening, because she remembered what that Troll had told her before he left, presumably for the first and last time.

"Are you here to fulfill your own prophecy, Jul'dan?" Taiva tried to disregard the condensed warm breaths on her shoulder, instead she spoke to the figure she could see, peering back at her through the gap in the thicket —the one she somewhat knew. There was a strange sort of comfort in that. It was apparent that _he_ wasn't the one holding a weapon to her that threatened her continued existence this time.

It didn't matter though, her existence was threatened nonetheless, and what ever pity Jul'dan could have felt for her, or whatever reason was true that he hadn't decided to kill her the first time, whoever held her fate could likely not have it.

He didn't say anything, and in the moment, it was apparent that nothing was more dismal to hear than nothing at all. As she stared back at him, she saw his features shift and bend under the grey winter light, like one trying to understand foreign text within a scroll. Jul'dan was studying her, she figured. Deciding how to respond, or more likely deciding how to kill her. This time, he might just let it happen.

There were dark feathers in the sky, wings churning air, wordless calls demanding. Wordless but audible, breaking the silence. She always heard the things that didn't matter, and failed to hear the things that did.

_No, that wasn't right._ Taiva corrected herself. Having a blade against her throat just awakened a new type of alertness, if not inappropriately too late. Her gaze went briefly upward, and she wondered whose death the crows were foreseeing. Those on the battlefield? Her own?

"Let 'er go, Dakjo." Taiva's attention was turned quickly to Jul'dan again as she was shaken from her wandering thoughts, in time to see it indeed was him speaking, as he did so once more.

"She be ah harmless pathetic little ting."

Her pursuer shifted, as if hesitant. Cold metal moved slightly against her neck, humid respiration was on her shoulder. It was a daunting sensation, but one ignored as any other emotion was that would make the druid cautious while she spoke. And so, it never prevented her from doing so.

"Am I truly that much of a nuisance, in which I deserve to be hunted like the rat destroying the farmers crops?"

Revenge was honor, self dignifying. She wouldn't be surprised.

"Ah, nevah changed at all. Still talkin' bout what she deserve ahnd why she be deservin' it." There was the same type of condescending tone in Jul'dan's heavy voice, and another alarmingly accompanied it, behind her chill-bitten delicate ear.

"So, dis is dah same elf I be seein' yah foolin' wit." It was deep and exotic; tell-tale to what race owned it.

She heard the faint crunch of shuffled footing in snow, a tongue clicking in disappointment. She even thought she could see in the corner of her eye, a yellow tinted ivory tusk curling past her left cheek and coming into view.

_Was he truly spying on us from the night before? How does he know?_

Taiva's heart sped up a bit faster at that moment. She felt betrayed in a way, although her conscience couldn't pinpoint exactly why. She decided to remind herself there wasn't possibly a way you could betray an enemy, an enemy shouldn't give trust in the first place. It was then when she once again did consider herself a fool.

Her true thoughts were only masked in the best way she could come up with, perhaps even subconsciously. Arrogance.

"You two seem pretty straight forward about yourselves, so I'd expect you'd give me the appropriate answer when I ask you what the hell your motive is here." Her entire frame kept still, and she gritted her teeth as she spoke, frustrated façade.

The night elf kept her eyes on Jul'dan, waiting for an answer- any answer. Uncertainty was sometimes more troubling to deal with than knowing. But this time, he didn't answer. His face was a blank canvas, grey-blue and unpainted with the color of emotion. His bear lumbered beside him, too waiting for something, but a fierce expression was only evident it was the command of attacking.

"Eh… yah not da only one who be rememberin' tings clear. But mon, I only see it as more of ah reason ta get rid a 'er.

The wrong troll spoke, and she winced away slightly from that voice behind her, still hot on her nape. It sent an indecent shudder down her entire frame.

"No. We're wastin' time. Save watevah sick desire yah have fo' killin' tings fo' when it's helpful." Jul'dan's voice gave way a bit, annoyance seeping through the cracks of his tone. Taiva felt as if his blank stare was directed quite accurately into whomever's was behind her, the eyes of someone unknown- she may never have the chance to see, the way he wanted to deal with the situation.

"Still da same. Yah right, Jul'dan. Da elf speakin' out foolishly when it'd be a foolish time ta do so. But where yah wrong is, be'in stupid deserves its consequences."

The other troll completely brushed-off the hunter's attempt to make him compliant. Taiva braced herself for the look of submission that would likely find itself on Jul'dan's face soon enough. There he was, defending someone who didn't even seem they had the will to live. Any rational being would have kept them self quiet during such an ordeal. The druid knew questioning yourself if you really were rational meant you most likely weren't.

She never did see the look though.

"Try ta stop contradictin' yahself den. If ya were right, I suppose yah'd want dah creatures tah catch up wit us den. Be'in stupid deserves its consequences. I see ah clear display ah dat now, and it not only be by dah elfie." Jul'dan's eyes unfocused for a moment, off somewhere in his own mind. "Taiva." He mumbled, correcting himself unnecessarily in an awkward fashion. Taiva wished he hadn't.

_He liked to do that, didn't he?_ Turning one's words against themselves, as he had for her and "Dakjo", intentionally or not.

Taiva suddenly found herself stumbling forward, as the arms roughly let go, leaving her skin with only the thin puncture she received on mostly her own flawed liability. Her knees were weak, once again with the likelihood of emotion rather than injury.

Her vision swayed back into the brief darkness as it had done before, returning when it was only too late. Taiva caught herself weakly with her forearms; face mere inches from scraping in the ice.

While even being nearly blinded by the hues of white in front of her, she imagined the resentful look on the other troll's face, as giving in didn't seem like something he liked to do, and his actions only seemed to enforce the statement. Imagining it wasn't needed any longer, though.

She saw the legs of the other troll appear across from her, covered in pants made of the dark hide of some animal, tall and lanky, like any troll's would have been. The same type of material made up his boots, which accommodated for his two-toed feet. Pale from the cold, she assumed was the reasoning for his skin tone. They were bare and vulnerable to the frost. But she realized they were actually a natural tint, quite similar to Jul'dan's. Taiva never understood how trolls kept themselves warm walking around practically bare-footed most of the time.

She refused herself from looking up to see his face. Or she simply couldn't do it.

"You're calling _us _the creatures."

Her long silvery locks draped down over her face, glimpses of the two humanoid figures briefly making their way into her vision.

"Look at yourselves." she said dryly.

The right foot of the troll in front of her made a movement, one that probably shouldn't have been unexpected after Taiva's statement. There was little she could do to prevent the foot from landing a blow; a breath shattering kick directly into her gut.

Hard and precise, Taiva clenched her jaw tightly in agony, also squeezing her lids shut, disallowing any tears an escape.

"Don' even know what yah talkin' 'bout. Yah make me wonder if yah were even wantin' ah foul reaction. Shut up." Commanded one voice, the one creeping into her ear from before.

The night elf's arms finally gave in, and she fell over, landing abruptly on one shoulder.

There was still air again, not a sole understandable word, but the continued cawing of some crows above.

"What is your motive?" She repeated herself, finally breaking the silence. The druid pushed herself up from the ground, off of her throbbing shoulder, the chill of the earth numbing her palms as she did so and making her muscles quake uncontrollably.

Then there was no avoiding looking promptly at the being who nearly decided on her death. In their face, or rather the one that was supposed to be there, at least supposedly visible.

The troll was hooded, clad in the same material all around. No features were determinable; his eyes alone were barely seen, covered in a sheet of shadows the overhanging fabric provided him with- an obvious rogue at even a quick first glance. A quick glance was all that was really needed, but Taiva soon found her staring prolonged. Something was just so maliciously intriguing with what could have been her fate in humanoid form, an entire aura of one who seemed to have no qualms with death itself. One who seemed entirely built for slaying and assassination, who was also provoked out of the former. Taiva wondered why and how.

"I not be talkin' bout' da Alliance, if yah mean dat." Taiva snapped her neck around rapidly enough to feel the burning sensation incline where she had received the minor wound. The druid took sight of Jul'dan watching her. He possibly had for the entire ordeal, in which she once again wandered too far off into her thoughts. There was something off in his mahogany eyes. A certain type of knowing. It bothered her too, because it really could be compared to how Sestri looked when she was trying to convince her to leave the battlefield.

"Funny how ya'd assume dat. Part ah yah has ta tink its true." The hunter said, unwavering expression.

There were quite a few things Taiva felt like saying at that moment, but there also were quite a few things she'd also learned within the last few minutes. She restrained herself from verbalizing the thoughts she'd thought have more of a dire impact on anyone's mood, for only her own well-being.

"Then I would appreciate it if you cleared things up." She decided to say, regaining her stance weakly. A sarcastic smile played on her lips.

Jul'dan smirked. But it was different this time. It was cold and condescending, only lightly tinged with humor.

"Deres been an invasion ah sorts."

Taiva lifted a thin ashen brow. "An invasion?" She repeated. "I wouldn't call that to be too much out of the norm."

_There's something terribly wrong when you have found yourself saying such a thing. _The druid thought with an inward sigh.

Nonetheless, she continued on her quarry. Simply because she was fed up with not getting answers.

"Yah came from dah eastern path?" Dakjo questioned her. She reluctantly looked to the shadowy form that was where his face would be. Part of her mind could piece together a look of inquisition on his clothed visage from the tone in his voice.

"What kind of question are you asking me? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Ah reasonable one. Ah good one. Explains how yah end up bein' dah last ta know what be goin' on." His fingers toyed with the grip of his dagger. It was buckled onto his waist. He had sheathed it since the druid was let go.

"Damn fools tink dey be smart. Fightin' by where dah true enemy be hidin' out. It was only a matta a time befo' dah situation be takin' advantage of. Ahnd exactly dat has happened."

"Da undead scourge. Dey killed comrades ahlike." Jul'dan finally said. "Alliance, Horde. Dey don' care. I woulda tink yah'd catch on. It'd be dah only reason why yah still breathen. I don' lie when I tell yah I'd kill yah if we met unda normal circumstances 'ere." He lifted up his bulking shoulders in a shrug. "But uh, didn't turn out dat way."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. More surprisingly, she couldn't believe part of her knew there was a possibility for some truth to be in the broken words.

Dakjo sneered in response to what the hunter had said. "Thank whatevah deities yah have for dis occurrence. 'Cause if it was not possible ta endeavor to each udah, I would be ah lot less tolerant tawords ahn alliance fool."

Taiva narrowed her eyes into golden slits. "Funny how such occurrences are so common as of late, hm?" The night elf saw Dakjo shrug to what she said. "But I have doubts they are about the doings of a higher being, only that they are about the bullshitting of the lower ones."

Dakjo's fist drove straight into her face. He succeeded in delivering what he must have believed to be a well-deserved blow. This time it was upon a soft spot near her jaw line. Her hands flew up to cradle her throbbing chin. Everything in front of Taiva; the high growing thistles, the snowy fells, the two males, were almost engulfed by blackness. It was several seconds before it all reappeared again.

When everything did though, something else was additionally there.

It was Sestri.

She appeared so suddenly, as if she were some ethereal figure to make it through the bushes without a sound. The dark haired druid's hands motioned about, forming a mist-like green light in their quake.

Both of the trolls were at least twice as dumbstruck as Taiva was. They didn't move a muscle, and by the time anyone could process what Sestri was doing, it was already done.

There was snarling and snapping. Jul'dan's hunter pet was being attacked by thick vines of sewage-hued ivy. The bear clenched his long muzzle around the plants, pulling desperately and pleading in loud growls and roars.

Sestri's mouth began to move, but the sound that came out was strange. It was almost distorted to Taiva. The druid felt as though she had a slipping grasp of consciousness, her head swung aside lowly as if she had a snapped neck.

"_It looks as though we're evenly matched now._" Sestri took up a combat stance, blade edged spear present in her hands. Her eyes were viscous— orbs of silver cold steel. Taiva had never seen her look so much like that before.

Her head drifted back up and the pain subsided a bit. She stumbled a bit forward, but soon regained proper footing.

"_I wouldn't say that._" Taiva muttered to herself quietly. "_That idiotic bear already counts as negative one, immobile or not._"

Sestri grinned deviously, deep blue lips upturned and exposing her teeth. Then she thrust the weapon in the direction of the troll closest to her. Taiva jumped from her place in shock at the sudden assault, biting her lips and clenching her fists so vigorously her own nails dug into the skin at her palms.

The rogue jolted away so quickly, his form could have been mistaken as a moving shadow. He certainly had the appearance as one, just a dark blur silhouetted against the white of the snow and the brown of the thicket. Taiva quietly thanked the Goddess it happened to be that rogue. Was it because she didn't wish for ailment on Jul'dan's part, or knew that Dakjo had a better chance of not getting a spear through his skull? It could have been both, and that frankly bothered her quite a bit.

When the spear passed through thin air, Sestri's face twisted into a frustrated scowl. "_Get away, Taiva._" The dark haired druid commanded in hectic Darnassian. "_I will handle this._" She started to shoot out spells towards the moving shadowy shape. The rogue had a speed his lanky figure could easily allow, and there were certain moments when Taiva couldn't make out where he was and where he used to be. Hot and fast like green fire, Sestri pulled back her wrists and casted again when the spells hit and melted the snow, or eventually missed and dissolved into the air.

Taiva heard a gun click. That dreadful sound she had heard before didn't mean end for her this time, Jul'dan's gun was aimed elsewhere. It was all happening too soon, and so unpredictably. "_Stop!_" Taiva screamed. It was a spur of the moment thing to do, but Taiva darted to the side from her place, making solid impact with the other night elf. Both of them hit the ice and landed in a rut in the terrain, Taiva on her palms and Sestri on back.

She frantically looked to Jul'dan. "Don't!" She shouted in orcish. She fell on her knees and held her right hand out in front of her like a shield. He looked at her, which made him pause for the smallest of moments, his blunderbuss still aligned with his line of view. That alone was enough to hold back the release of a life ending bullet that could easily have been released a mere split second after.

"Sestri is a friend of mine." The white haired druid motioned towards her.

Taiva cocked her head sideways, dreading the hint of betrayal she caught in the other druid's eyes. "They aren't here to look for a fight." She said to her in her own language quietly.

Just as she thought the adrenaline of the fight had been subdued, and that both sides had given up on killing the other, something else happened.

_BANG._

Taiva's heart plummeted to the bottom of her chest, and the look in Sestri's eyes was replaced with utter terror.

"No!" Taiva half expected Sestri to be falling to the ground, to be suffering through the bullet in her chest with her last unsteady breaths.

Instead, her ally shifted on her elbows until she could see behind her. There she sat, gaping. Taiva followed her gaze. The bullet landed elsewhere. What looked to be a putrid, gnarled carcass lay sprawled out, rotting fleshy limbs twitching in spasms underneath it. A large hole occupied a grand portion of what she thought to be its decaying face. The disgusting creature lacked a lower jaw, but she could see the hole in his cranium was fresh. Jul'dan did that.

It squirmed about and made shrill noises. They were long and thoughtless, as automatic as the sputtering of the machinery that was often heard throughout the terrain. The ghoul outstretched one clawed hand towards the two of them, then the other in an attempt to begin a twisted crawl.

Dakjo was on top of it before it could even make a second stride. He sliced its head clean off, oozes pouring out of its neck and mixing with the snow.

The rogue pulled his hood off, and Taiva saw him for the first time. He simply did it so that Taiva could see his smug expression, appearing on his face as a morbid smirk. "Still tink we be bullshittin'?

AN: I must say that initially, this chapter was supposed to be a bit longer. I decided to just go for it and get it out there, so if I wanted to add in what I had before I'd end up causing more of a delay with the publishing. So anyways, chapter 6 is soon to come because I technically have a large proportion of it done as of yet, stay tuned and reviews are always lovely.


	6. Strife

I know, this chapter took waaaaay too long to get out. I try to make up by posting a fairly long one this time. I'll try my best to get the next one out sooner!

* * *

Rather silent travelling through the landscape had made resent swell in size. As the two of them walked, Taiva found the time to try and figure out why.

_It's not the constant snow treading, the occasional slip of footing on ice, nor the thwacking received every time I have to push through more foliage._

Now was one of those times again, and Taiva shoved the branches to the side. She couldn't even feel the claw like twigs pulling at her frozen skin. By now it had almost become an automatic motion, one foot after the other, regardless of the irksome obstacles.

_No._ She thought. _It's not that._

She looked behind her, and only had to catch the slightest glimpse of darker moving shapes between the gaps in the dead thicket. She knew what they were. Her friend looked back too, cocking her head partially over her shoulder. Vivid, unmasked frustration flooded onto her visage in the form of a twisted half-frown. Taiva then knew why she felt the way she did.

It's Sestri. It simply was.

"They've been following us for the past half hour." The woman said. Even with the expression Taiva had seen, Sestri managed to keep the emotions out of her voice.

"I've noticed that myself, but I don't exactly think that could be such a bad thing in this situation." The white-haired druid's reply was simple, and she, like Sestri, kept her true emotions concealed. An apathetic expression only laced her tone.

"Why is that?"

"Did you not see what happened back there?"

Sestri stopped walking and turned around completely to face Taiva. "I did. Perhaps more than you think." The other woman's silver eyes began to wander, as if she were sorting out some thoughts in her own mind.

Taiva halted her own pace too, gazing resentfully at the other druid in the bushes up ahead. "Well, now that you've brought that up, that raises quite a few questions. Let's start with 'where the hell were you?"

She treaded in the snow with about the same grace of a crippled bird, almost tripping when her foot caught under some roots hidden beneath the icy flakes. "Anyways," Taiva said, regaining a stern footing and passing the dark haired druid. "If we don't keep up a good pace, they're bound to catch up sooner or later."

"No. Hold it." Taiva felt the woman's hand on her shoulder as Sestri said that, a bit more roughly than what she would have expected from her.

"You have more than enough explaining to do yourself. Don't think you're getting out of it so easily."

Taiva made sure not to swallow the non-existent lump that seemed to be forming in her throat. She felt a sort of pang- a brief, sharp jolt in her chest. The druid's lips parted but she couldn't get a grasp at what words to choose, how to explain. "It's... too much of a long story." She looked back into expectant, prompting eyes of cold steel. She knew then merely from that look that Sestri wasn't going to let her slide so easily.

Sestri pursed her lips. "We have the time." She prodded. "This walk returning to the fortress needs not be a silent one. So tell me. How do you know them?"

Taiva's protests were quieted by quiet itself. The dark-haired woman pushed on through some more clawing twigs, an unspoken sign for her to follow. Given the circumstances the last time she fell behind, Taiva practically pelted after her.

"I don't understand what happened myself. I mean, it was a misunderstanding- not that much big of a deal." Taiva shrugged, trying to find a simple way to explain things to the back of the other woman's head.

The fact she almost killed his pet and had a gun pointed at her head wasn't a big deal? Taiva couldn't even agree with herself on that one, but decided not to spill the details so soon.

She imagined Sestri to be frowning, the corners of her mouth twitching irritably. It always seemed to when she spoke to her as of late. An unappeasable, calculating woman had replaced the young girl she knew, and that very woman would let herself show every bit of distaste she felt towards Taiva's words, and none satisfaction when the two actually did manage to start up a good conversation- something that relatively reminded the other woman of the 'good old days'.

Whether or not she told the full truth, Taiva felt as though the reactions from Sestri would be the same. Her bitter-tinged frown, eyes as empty and dismal to stare at as if they were her lost friend's own grave. They might as well be, because all they did now was provide proof that the rebellious, youthful girl was gone.

Sestri stopped bothering about it altogether after that, and quiet engulfed the pair yet again, like the weeds the night elf felt were engulfing her, pulling at her ankles, relentlessly dotted around the terrain. Prolonged travelling brought Wintergrasp's bleached landscape drifting past the two of them. Or four of them. She had almost forgotten what had once been a gift in itself, now a curse, did nothing but fuel the tension between the pair. Taiva pondered on the fact things could have been better had she been the one to save Sestri from that creature, and _those trolls_ had been no where to be seen.

They were getting close to Wintergrasp fortress. It was a stretching silhouette of deep grays over bleached hills that created the skyline. They both stopped their pace just along the barrier of foliage, a wall of bush just before it began to thin out into a terrain of solid ice and snow.

Sestri turned around to face Taiva, and the expression she assumed on her friend was seen. She bent down backwards on something, a sigh passing through her lips as her feet lazily dragged forwards into the snow in the process.

An old hunk of rounded wood. A rust-rimmed barrel, upon further inspection. That too was a sign they were getting a lot nearer. But Sestri quickly disregarded that, and replaced the disregard on Taiva that had been in action since their last shared words with a fixating gaze. She crossed one leg over the other, slumping and cradling the side of her face with a gloved hand.

The white haired druid stood a little way in front of her, waiting all but patiently until her friend's full deep-blue lips parted. Sestri had always had a big mouth, literally, and it looked as if it were in a constant pout because of it, but what had been almost an amusing, cute, even attribute was something Taiva now found quite irritating.

"So you don't know them?" She finally said, pools of dim light looked ahead, into the night elf that loomed above her.

Taiva was silent. Her teeth dug lightly into her bottom lip, an effort without prevail to prevent herself from saying something stupid.

"Answer me, Taiva! Let me know the two animals who are following us didn't just save our lives for the point of turning us in to be killed later."

"No, I don't know them." That was only partial truth, and a partial lie. The standing woman shifted around in her spot, uneasiness creeping upon her.

"Let me answer your questionings now." Sestri jutted a finger out in an accusing kind of way. It matched her tone well. "If what you told me was actually true, things would have played out much, _much_ more differently back there. I wouldn't ever hesitate to kill someone who was threatening to do the same to you. _Especially_ a bunch of strangers we came here to rid of in the first place." Her eyes were narrow now, silver light shining through it's slits.

"I might not know what you or they were saying in that rather elaborate conversation in Orcish, but I couldn't help but wonder how such strangers called you by your name. I know the word Taiva, and that is that. Intrigued, I waited. Not one to spoil the fun with your newly acquired friends, hm?" Sestri threw up her hands, straightening herself up in a sign of giving in. "You know them in one way or another, and hell, I give up on trying to figure it out." She stood up, spinning on her heels to face the mass of shadowy stone that befitted them on the horizon.

"Sestri…" Taiva murmured, after hearing the bout of rant from her friend.

The woman only looked back briefly, cocking her head over her shoulder before she was spurred on. "I give up." There was a hidden meaning beneath the dark-haired druid's words, like she said what she said not on the situation, but everything about the two of them in general. Taiva caught that, and clenched her fists to her side until the knuckles showed bone white through lilac skin. Then she saw something in the other woman crack.

Sestri spun around again, while halfway pushing through the twigs, head shaking in frustration.

"You know what? I didn't even know what I'd find when I got to you. I liked believing, through all this time apart, that you'd have changed one way or another. _I_ decided it'd be time to grow up. _You_— you have only shown me you have grown far more naïve."

Sestri crossed her arms, long, thin brows furrowed with agitation. "You must have pissed them off somehow. I don't know how, and you won't tell me." She inhaled and exhaled deeply, winter-chilled mist making puffs in the air. "_They're_ going to _kill_ us. And I'm not keeping myself around them until that can happen." She was turned around again; raven blue hair whipping around her shoulder.

"Sestri, just hear me out." Taiva tried to persuade her, reaching out to pull on her shoulder.

"_I give up._" She said, throwing her hand at the other druid's to bat it away. Sestri was gone soon after. Taiva witnessed her friend dissolve into the shadows of the thorny hedge around them.

* * *

Taiva was spurred on only by the simple fact the woman was out there, and so were the very creatures she had intended to avoid upon coming to the blasted place to begin with. She thought she was lucky just not encountering any of them in the place they were said to be. She travelled through all of the Borean Tundra with nothing but the dismal meeting of some troll hunter, and not a scourge in sight, but when she'd came somewhere they didn't belong, they were there. How ironic.

They could be anywhere, at any given moment, and as mindless as they were, they'd never have the fear to attack. That was surely obvious. Images of what had happened beforehand- what looked to be Jul'dan blindly firing his gun into the fray, that lurid animal's shrill cries, it's limbs twisting beneath it when the rogue's blade met it's neck, flashed through the night elf's mind. Frankly, it delivered a fair amount of chills down Taiva's spine every now and then as she waited for something to happen- anything that could possibly be either Sestri or one of the creatures.

Finally she called it quits to the idea of waiting altogether. Taiva could never live with herself knowing Sestri had run off and gotten slaughtered because of some argument they got into. Those parting words echoed through her mind. _'They're going to kill us'._

They were going to kill her, _they _likely being one of the creatures, rather than a couple of trolls Sestri seemed to have her accusations against. They were going to kill her, and Taiva didn't want to wait around and let that happen.

Now snow and ice lapped at the back of Taiva's heels as each bounding stride disturbed pressed, frozen terrain. Shifting winds, bursts of cold air stung her face like a million tiny pin-pricks, but she'd never stop her pace, like the creatures and their slaughter, it was relentless. Wintergrasp fortress' foreseen presence, a dark, long shape seen over the small fells of the area from where they had been before, was rapidly growing larger in size. The night elf opted for a side entrance into one of the courtyards to keep clear of the path, which would help her keep clear of other more dire things as well. It was only when she was mere feet from it, when her head was stirred into a mass of blunt, dizzying pain she only had worsened with her bit of a run did she decide to stop. Sestri could have found a way in, and she simply couldn't go on. One way or another, the moment called for the girl to edge her way around the thick, towering wall of stone until she found a way inside.

Taiva allowed her fingers to travel along its sides, a dismal sort of support as she stumbled about; jagged steps and heavy pants, vision blurred into murky shapes and figures around her— what she only assumed to be the wall and it's stony engravings. Her numb hands, which gave little aid considering their lack of sensation, smoothed over countless edge and rim, looking for what might be a column of some sort, an indication of any type where a narrow archway was placed between walls. It could be a doorway too small for a vehicle to fit by, where guards would stand to assure those who could were not an enemy. The dark shadows consuming her sight did none to help the trivial search, but after Taiva did regain her breath and composure, what was before her overwhelmingly flooded into her vision.

Even Sestri, who was a skeptic at best, would be taken aback. It wasn't that the entire length of the wall lacked some sort of gape or corridor- no, those were plentiful; it was that each and every hole within the mass of stone were nothing but empty spaces in between pieces of collapsed rubble. The entire fortress was in complete ruin.

Taiva's eyes widened at the entire sight of it; every bit of her wanting to scream out for Sestri's name. This wasn't right. Wintergrasp Fortress was way too resistant to damage to be like this, and if it ever did get that way, for sure either faction who had claimed it would make quick work to fix it up before another assault upon them could happen. Everywhere the night elf looked lay boulders, lumped together and varying in size- signs that the place had once been a vigorous garrison.

If that wasn't enough, her very nightmare of a situation was confirmed when she took another deep inward breath; one filled with the vile stench of blood and rot. Taiva stumbled backwards, looking to go somewhere- anywhere away from the place and find that woman. It was awful. It occupied her nostrils in the most indecent way, but that, nonetheless, was short lived. With another jagged step back, the druid hit something large behind her- too soft to be a hunk of rock. She almost screamed, and hell, she very well wanted to, but arms shot around her waist, pulling her sharply backwards some more. Frigid hands moved over her mouth- gaped and ready to yell out, in enough time so that the screech of hers was muffled.

Taiva felt like she was drowning in the being's hold. And she would have sworn she was about to die, if it wasn't for the fact the being that did hold her's hand was coated in and smelled of cured leather- not decayed flesh.

She caught a glimpse of grey-blue and dark hide armor in the flurry, and her fight was stronger than perhaps it would be had she been grasped by an undead instead. Something went hissing past her ear, and wriggling movents, for the most part, were quelled.

"Yah gots ta be quiet." The voice was a nearly inaudible buzz; a mere whisper in comparison to her muffled protests. Being handled like this again, perhaps even without the intent of having her neck severed, brought Taiva to shame. She thought there and then she should have gone after Sestri before, and not wait for something that would never happen, which would be her coming back. After the angered woman disappeared, Taiva had stood in the thicket; dumbfounded and too concerned Sestri would be a lot more pissed off if she decided to follow her.

The hands yanked her back again, and the night elf practically went limp. She felt ashamed and invaded. As her worn boots went treading backwards with all but grace, and as she was forcedly moved to the offender's own demands, Taiva dreaded the thought of Sestri watching; seeing yet again her association with the newly met trolls. _Why was he doing this?_

Her questions would need to wait, and although Taiva had a great deal of reluctance to it, she participated a lot more as the male blindly guided her somewhere else. His thick hand was still wrapped firmly around her mouth for caution's sake. The night elf soon found that they were backtracking; that she had been pulled into the very thicket she and Sestri had spent hours finding their way out of to begin with.

Twigs clawed at the side of her face, adding to the growing collection of nicks and bruises from the most recent affairs. As soon as she felt the male's grip loosen, before the hands were even all off of her altogether, Taiva went twisting around, a quick escape from the uncomfortable grip.

"Fucking rogues." She spat, satisfying the urge for words to leave her smothered mouth. Taiva suddenly backed up, and her hands smoothed down the ruffled robe from where the troll had grabbed her; her best attempt to touch up shattered pride. "I've had enough of you as of late. How long were you spying on me?" She set a hard glare on Dakjo, corners of her lips twitching irritably to the troll's smug expression. He had still kept his hood off from when she'd last seen him- it was a thin veil of fabric that hung loosely along his nape.

"Long enough ta know you be headin' in tha right direction' ta kill ya self." He said, shrugging nonchalantly.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "You? Concerned about me killing myself? It seemed to be quite the opposite just awhile ago." Taiva made little attempt to hide the skepticism in her voice.

"Dah whole place be caved in. Rubble, bricks, no way ta gets inside."

"Shameful, I know. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Portals be in dere. Can't count ah time dey not be a help headin' on over ta Dalaran, easy.

"Well you know, as uh-" She tilted her head to the side and did a quick look over to the troll's form, making gestures in the air. "Bulky as you are, it's not your fault you can't get in. Sooner or later I'll find a way to squeeze by. It's really not my problem if you're all stuck out here and whatnot."

Dakjo's fingers rested on the satchel that carried his daggers; some sort of primitive instinct he had. Truthfully, it made Taiva a bit uncomfortable, but for the entire ordeal so far, she'd try and keep on a calm face. She had done it before.

"Besides, Sestri ran off because of you and your little show back there." The elf inquired. "Pretty damn convinced you have only mal-intents. I'd have to agree with her on that."

The troll waved his hand sideways in the air. "Dere be bodies all 'round tha place too. This elf was gon' join 'em befo' she even find a way inside. Bodies mean tha things be wanderin' ahbout." Dakjo had finished toying with his blades, but looked off to the side, and jutted a thumb out quickly in the druid's direction.

Taiva only continued. "She disappeared off somewhere, and I know, without a doubt that she got inside. Can't help you, but I'm sure you'll manage." Taiva had her own sarcastic undertone in her last words, but she secretly believed what she said as true. The night elf remembered how fast the hunter was to shoot the thing that was creeping up on Sestri, and how quickly the rogue was on top of it. She realized that Dakjo was no longer talking to or looking at _her_, but someone else, suddenly, and dared to follow his gaze. _Of course._

Taiva let her frown melt into a grin. A nervous one, at that. "Jul'dan." She murmured, eyes fixating on the other male, dumbstruck. It was all she really could say. Taiva had been too engulfed in talking off the rogue that she didn't take the slightest look around. Surely enough, there was the hunter. And there was the woman. Even when Taiva said she was positive she'd gotten inside the fortress, she was, without a doubt, proved wrong.

Sestri had reclaimed her post since her little rant; plopped down on the hunk of wood and staring at the other druid with panicked eyes. Taiva would have also noticed before now, if she had looked around a bit, that Jul'dan had the barrel of his gun sturdily set on her back.

"_Changed our minds, have we? Nice to see you've returned._" The white haired druid nodded towards the captivated night elf, hesitant at first.

"_Don't flatter yourself. I received the same treatment as you, Taiva."_

"_Got dragged half way across Azeroth and into the bushes again?"_

"_Nope. Better." _Sestri butted the barrel of the hunter's gun, indicating with her shoulder.

Taiva put on a brilliant smile, clasping her hands together. "Alright. It's been a pleasant reunion. Or hostage situation." She declared, once again reverting to orcish. "You know, Jul'dan, I'm pretty sure you're not the kind of guy, but she thinks you're going to shoot her."

"Eh, had ta do somethin' ta get her 'ere. Ya friend don' tunderstand me."

Taiva already thought it out. Language really was one of the strongest barriers. This barrier was the only thing she considered herself to have control over at the moment.

"You really have to learn to stop pointing guns at whomever you please. It makes you come off rather harsh. And I'd like to leave now." She indicated, taking a step in the direction of the uneasy woman and away from the rogue. As Taiva drew nearer, the hunter's bear brought the bulk of his form closer to its master, snarling between its yellowed teeth.

"_He doesn't have the guts to pull the trigger here. Can you run?"_ Taiva inquired, looming over Sestri. Even though she wasn't making eye contact with either troll, she could feel their inquisitive stares on her, burning hot holes into the back of her skull. They had no idea what she was saying, as it was the same for Sestri whenever she spoke to them. It could possibly work to her advantage.

Sestri shook her head, an odd motion added within the great deal of shaking her entire body was doing. Taiva hadn't seen her look so terrified before, and frankly, the fact Sestri was scared over a gun that wouldn't shoot scared her. _"Run where? We have no where to go. I've checked the fortress up and over. It's completely barricaded. Some of those who spent their time trying to get in had their efforts cut short. Perhaps in a worse way than we have."_ The druid had echoed Dakjo's own words, even without knowing what he had said to Taiva. The gun wasn't what she was scared of. Taiva had been simply grabbed and dragged to oblivion by the rogue- in enough time that she hadn't seen the carnage either party referred to. She smelt it though. Maybe she should have considered herself lucky the horrible stench hadn't made itself a reality yet.

Dakjo cleared his throat- a gruff type of sound, making Taiva swivel in her place to face the rogue.

"Leave dis hell hole? Wouldn' we all like tah?" He said, snide smirk extending between two long, curved tusks.

She didn't even want to address Jul'dan when he then spoke after the other troll. "Not gunna happen fo' either of us should yah go runnin of into tha fray by yahselves."

Taiva winced. She dreaded to hear those words, mostly because she knew they were true.

* * *

The sky was a darkened mass of navy blue; clouds that looked heavy enough to promise a good storm or two extending beyond its horizon. Taiva was reminded of a tender bruise by them- one she felt could have easily formed on the side of her face since she'd irritated the rogue. She hated seeing the sun set over the fells in Wintergrasp's terrain. If she had been thinking of a night's sleep in the place before the dismal event occurred, she saw herself comfortably stowed away in a tent of some sort- none a witness to the ominous skyline, and little care on her mind to do with the scourge.

This was not the case though.

"_Jul'dan,_" Taiva said, motioning to the hunter a little way across the clearing, "_proposes that we head out and look for an encampment of some sort at sunrise tomorrow._" She tossed a dry branch into the flames, making heated red embers fly up, then cool and blend into the snow as white ash. Timber wasn't difficult to find. Both of the trolls had gone to work and hacked down the irksome plants, so they'd have a clean area to conceal themselves within the brush throughout the night. There was a pile of discarded twigs not two far from the source of heat. "_He believes that when we find one, Alliance or Horde, the other shouldn't be too far. Then it's a one way flight to Dalaran from there, and we all go home, no harm done, happy._"

Taiva bent down and sat beside Sestri, legs crossed beneath her. The other druid had only continued her unrelenting gaze into the bonfire, face heavy with contemplation. "_Why are you doing this, Taiva?_" Sestri questioned, not even making an effort to look at the night elf.

Taiva shifted in her place. It was little to do with not being comfortable. She had gotten used to sleeping outdoors and all. It was because she had caught the hint of venom in Sestri's voice, which was enough to sprout a bit of uneasiness. "_I just want out of here. You know our chances are better if-"_

Sestri turned to face her, and though the shadows and orange glow of the flames hid her expression for the most part, her silver eyes beamed with unmasked distrust. "_You just want out of here, exactly. You can easily find your own way yourself. I know flying is how you got here in the first place._"

"_Yes…_" Taiva ventured warily. "_but what about you?_"

The other night elf released a sigh. "_I never learned how to_."

There was an unsettling silence after that, but Taiva spoke up.

"_I wouldn't ever abandon you like that_."

"_Really now? It wouldn't make the first time._" Sestri shook her head, displeased about some other things Taiva wasn't sure of. Taiva wasn't even sure what Sestri meant, but she soon didn't have the moment to ask, because the woman got up, leaving the other druid alone by the flames. "_I can't believe this._" She muttered, walking away.

Some rattling of the bushes indicated that Sestri had decided to go off venturing somewhere again. Taiva only bit her bottom lip back, hoping she wasn't running off with self-destructive tendencies. Eventually the night elf allowed herself to believe Sestri was looking for something to eat, or just wanted to be alone briefly, and began to relax by the warmth of the flames. She _was_ relaxed, until she heard a tongue clicking in disappointment behind her.

Taiva turned her body somewhat, and then cocked her head over her shoulder to see the rogue, lazily reclined against a tree. "Where tha otha girl be at?" Dakjo inquired, a snide smirk plastered on his face like he very well knew what had happened. Taiva didn't think he did, she thought, rather, he'd use that expression for the point of making enemies believe he knew more than he actually did. She wouldn't be surprised though if he had taken in a few hints from their heated conversation in Darnassian. "She be off again. Fo' what reason?"

The night elf rolled her eyes, giving him a curt reply. "For what reason do you care?"

He lifted his hefty shoulders up in a shrug, then did something she found quite odd. Dakjo twisted around to dig through a sack on the ground by him, until he eventually pulled out something that looked to be a dark brown slab of dried meat, wrapped up in some cloth.

"Yah want some?" He asked, before taking one large piece and popping it into his mouth.

Taiva considered saying no; that she didn't want to take some random troll's food, especially since he seemed so bipolar in his decisions. Reluctantly though, Taiva nodded her head, putting her hand out. She took a greedy bite, forcedly making herself swallow down a tough hunk of it.

"Jul'dan's distancing himself, I see. Why is that?" She searched for something, anything that would break the awkward air around them. Sestri had gone off by herself again, and Taiva would likely find herself rather bored if she sat by the bonfire all night by herself. Jul'dan blankly patted the head of his bear from what she could see, staring into the fire with an empty gaze.

Dakjo stuck out one of his gloved fingers, pointing to her boot and still chewing on his slab of meat. Taiva looked at it, puzzled. He'd noticed the few holes she had, but she still didn't get the point.

"Knows I saw tha whole ting wit' you ahn him by dah borders." The troll declared after he swallowed the food. Taiva could even hear the gulp in his throat, and shuttered not only to that, but what the he had said.

It made sense now. Taiva rummaged back through the occurrences of the other day, and there, in that memory, she recalled the hunter telling her that those at his camp would kill her if they saw her. Was he referring to Dakjo? It made sense too, why the rogue referred to it as 'the whole thing'. What didn't seem like a big deal to Taiva at all was probably shattering to a troll's pride; letting her by without lead in her skull, and then later asking for help carrying his pet back. "By Elune, you make it sound so degrading, like something lewd happened between us."

"I ahlways called him dah softie, yah know. Weird, huh? Yah would tink dah older brotha be tha one to say dat."

"You two are— ?" By holding a knife to her throat and wanting to kill her, was Dakjo only looking to redeem a brother's lost pride by finishing off the elf he let slide by? Taiva said it in utmost disbelief, but when she took a second glance, she didn't know how she could have _not_ believed it. Both trolls shared similar features; a broad, prominent chin, eyes of similar deep red, and a skin tone of dull bluish grey one could argue was practically the same on both of them. What she thought was because the entire race looked all similar, even between varying and unrelated people, was because the two trolls were related _all_ along. She'd only noticed awhile ago after the rogue had pulled his hood off, but his and Jul'dan's hair colour were similar too, the rogue's not being orange-hued, but a deeper, richer shade of maroon.

The rogue interrupted Taiva's thoughts. "We be brothas." He finished her words, nodding and unrolling the cloth to stuff another flank of meat in his mouth. "Whats it to yah?"

"Nothing." She lied, a blank stare into the flames that licked the frozen air. Taken quite aback, she opted to change the subject.

Dakjo had already beat her to it, though. "I can fix tha boot." He said, once again jutting out a thick finger and pointing to the marred leather. Taiva, who had her emotions flickering and switching from unconcerned, to shocked, to irritated, was nothing like the rogue, who kept on a face that was pretty damn nonchalant the entire time.

"Oh, so you're a leatherworker now?"

Dakjo gave a proud nod- something that looked strange considering the lengthy tusks curling upwards from between his lips.

"Hrm, I don't know. It just looks as if you haven't repaired armor… or boots in that matter for at least a century. Tell me, did you truthfully cut out some holes in your shoes to needlessly have extra leather on your face?" She looked to the feet stretched out in front of him, and his exposed toes seemed to subconsciously curl as she said that.

"Hm." Dakjo reclined back against the rough bark of the tree, arms folded above his head in repose. He shot her a careless side glance. "Quite smart and amusin, Taiva tink of 'erself tah be." He said her name, coldly and degrading. In a way, it was worse than being called elfie, she found. "Elfie" was what she was; her name was who she was.

"Yah tink dey care 'bout how smart yah claim yerself ta be, how many threats yah give dem? Keep it up, and tha last sensation ya feel be tha rot creepin' over yah body." He pulled his arms from above him to his sides, giving another careless shrug.

"Aftah dat, well. Yah be wanderin round smellin' like ah raptor's leavins, and have bout' tha same state of mind as it too." The rogue waved his hand in the air in dismissal. "Tha annoying elf can leave now." He said, addressing her, seeming quite hell bent on getting some sleep.

Taiva cocked up a silver brow. "I leave? I find myself comfortable enough here."

"I don' argue wit' raptor shit." Dakjo stirred, repositioning himself so he was upright. He treaded in the snow and went around the bonfire. "Tha bruise be making yah face all pretty, by tha way." He said, throwing the remark over his large shoulder. Then he was gone, crossing over to Jul'dan's side of the flames. When he was there, Taiva saw the shadowed figure unroll the cloth containing the meat, and giving the slab of it that she yearned to have more of to the bear. Her stomach was a void mass, rumbling from what had only re-whetted her hunger.

Taiva reached up to lightly touch the pale lilac skin on her face, wincing when the pain swelled under her fingers where she had been hit. Sighing, the night elf slid over on the frozen earth, claiming the rogue's former spot against the tree. She recalled feeling as though something was wrong upon flying into Wintergrasp. Was she ever ignorant about that. Her only friend had abandon her, and with everything wrong like it was, she probably wouldn't be able to get the slightest bit of sleep, hadn't there been the gentle crackling of the fire.


End file.
